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Back on August 30, 1987, Capcom released Street Fighter in arcades, which seemed relatively innocuous until you gave it a second look. The graphics were average for the time, the voice acting was quite muffled, and the controls were strict and unforgiving. You could normally only choose a single character – a redheaded, red-shoed martial artist named Ryu – unless a second player came on, in which case they could play a blonde clone named Ken. Most people who play it would agree that it’s not the best game in the series, but there were people who saw its potential, and decided to continue the franchise with Street Fighter II. With that, one of the video games’ biggest icons stepped into the spotlight.

Over the past 25 years, Street Fighter has worked itself up from humble beginnings in the arcade to being a cultural phenomenon throughout the world. Millions of people interact with it every day, in a myriad of ways. In all truth, the fans define the franchise as much as the games. And it was these people who inspired the creation of the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector’s Set.